India Needs to Invest More in Agriculture

South Asia hosts almost half of the world’s poor and malnourished people. The World Bank says, by 2050, an additional 900 million people will be added to the existing 1.6 billion across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Producing enough food for all of them would require substantial investments in agricultural research. A new study by the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators points out that India’s performance is better than its neighbours. However, it has to bridge a huge gap before it can catch up with countries like China and Brazil.